By William A. Weathers and Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writers

COLERAIN TWP. - A fight in the paint aisle Tuesday night at a Big Kmart store here ended with an employee dead, a customer critically injured and the apparent gunman committing suicide, officials said.

The shooting happened about 7:30 p.m. in the store at 8451 Colerain Ave. The motive remained unclear.

Paul Faith, 25, of Green Township (Submitted photo)

Melissa Fairmount and David Garza gaze out the window of a loft on Beekman Rd. at the scene of the car chase which ended with the driver shooting himself. (Sarah Conard/The Enquirer)

More than 10 police and sheriff vehicles are lined up on Beekman Rd. behind the Oldsmobile where a driver led the police on a chase from Colerain Ave. after a shooting in a Kmart. (Sarah Conard/The Enquirer)

"For some unknown reason, an altercation broke out'' in the right rear corner of the store, said Steve Barnett, spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office. The dead worker was identified as Paul Heid, 22, of Colerain Township.

Police identified the suspect/suicide victim as Paul Faith, 25, of Green Township.

The customer who was shot twice was identified as James Patrick Daly, 46, of Mount Healthy. He was taken to University Hospital, where he was in critical condition.

Barnett said investigators "have no idea what the motive was.''

Outside the store, Geoff Gulley of Northside waited for his girlfriend, who was inside at the paint aisle. "She was in the same aisle. She heard a couple of pops. She thought a can of paint had exploded.''

Customers and employees chased the suspect as he ran from the store, Barnett said. That's when the man "turned and fired random shots,'' two of them hitting Daly.

Faith was firing a semi-automatic pistol, Barnett said.

The gunman got into a gray Oldsmobile Cutlass and tore out of the parking lot, firing one shot at Deputy Mike Robbins.

Robbins, who was on foot, fired one shot at the car but did not hit it.

Eric Amshaoff was in the parking lot when he heard about five shots. He looked up and saw the car "flying backwards'' in the parking lot.

The shooting started a chase from the store down Colerain Avenue into the city of Cincinnati, down Beekman Avenue. At Beekman and Fairmount avenues, the Oldsmobile stopped. That's where Faith shot himself in the car, Barnett said.

Police kept telling the man to get out of the car. When he didn't respond, Barnett said, officers broke a window and shot him with a Taser gun. They found a gun inside the car, Barnett said.

Peggy Huffman, of Independence, was driving along Colerain Avenue with her 13-year-old daughter when the fleeing Oldsmobile came at her in her lane, she said.

"He was coming on the wrong side of the road towards me,'' she said. "He almost hit me head-on with my kid. It was pretty scary.''

Police flattened the car's right front tire with Stop Sticks - a device with spikes that is thrown out to flatten tires and intended stop a police pursuit. But Faith was able to continue to drive several miles.

Nate McConnell, Heid's brother-in-law and childhood friend, said he was shocked to learn of the fatal shooting.

"He was a really, really nice guy. A great guy,'' said McConnell, who attended the Vineyard Community Church youth group with Heid.

Heid lived at home with his parents and was raising his 2-year-old daughter.

Daly's father-in-law, Joseph Payer, said Daly is the father of four and a member of a local barbershop quartet, the Delta Kings. Payer said he wasn't surprised to hear that Daly was shot while running after the shooter.

"That sounds just like him," he said.

The shooting is the first at a workplace since Nov. 6, when a former worker, Tom West, opened fire at Watkins Motor Lines in West Chester Township, killing two people. West was sentenced Monday to two life sentences plus 43 years with no possibility for parole.

The Kmart store was the site of several arsons beginning in 1998. In 2000, a College Hill woman and employee was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated arson in the fires.

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Staff Writer Sharon Coolidge contributed. E-mail bweathers@enquirer.com and jprendergast@enquirer.com